The Two Song Dynasty was a period of great development of the imperial examination system, and the official evaluation system was improved during the Two Song Dynasty.
The imperial examination system began in the Sui and Tang dynasties and was perfected in the two Song dynasties, and the improvement of the imperial examination system institutionalized and standardized the appointment and removal of officials and the assessment of officials.
The source of the imperial examination system is the stipulation made by the state to avoid the monopoly of the imperial court by the family family, and the imperial examination system also had a strong characteristics of family control in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
For example, the unsealed shade and examination papers, etc., candidates can even visit the examiner in advance, etc., so that the children of the family family have a higher chance of being the first.
The imperial examination system in the Two Song Dynasty required that the names of candidates be obscured, and the examiners who read the papers could not know the candidates' examination papers in advance.
In this way, the fairness of the imperial examination was guaranteed, and the children of the Hanmen could appear in the court on a large scale, thus breaking the monopoly of the family on the appointment and dismissal of officials.
Although it is still impossible to prevent some noble children from entering the court through power, it still opens a way for the children of the cold family to rise.
The imperial examination system in the two Song Dynasties set up clear laws and general scriptures to assess the level of test takers, and divided candidates into three grades through results. Jin Shi and the first, Jin Shi origin, and the same Jin Shi origin, these three levels are the identities after passing the imperial examination.
In the Two Song Dynasty, the emperor, because he wanted to show his importance to the selection of officials, would personally hold palace examinations to assess candidates.
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the emperor's palace examination would eliminate some candidates, and in the late Northern Song Dynasty, if they entered the palace examination, they would definitely become jinshi.
The ranking of the palace examination is only in the order of not entering and leaving, so that the emperor can grant favor to the group of officials. These candidates were all members of officials, and the emperor's favor could keep the officials loyal.
This is also the reason why the emperors of the two Song dynasties repeatedly reformed the imperial examination system, that is, to maintain the absolute rule of the monarchy through the appointment, removal and selection of officials.
The reason why the palace examination abolished the elimination system is to avoid direct resentment of the eliminated candidates against the emperor. The candidates who can enter the temple examination are basically people who have learned well.
Even if it is a mediocre person, it is a person from a noble family who can find a way to get through the joints. Once these test takers became resentful of the imperial court, there would be extremely serious consequences.
For example, Zhang Yuan during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song became resentful of the imperial court because he was eliminated in repeated palace trials, and then defected to Western Xia.
Zhang Yuan, a scholar who is proficient in the advanced political construction of feudalism, is a rare talent for the Western Xia of the political structure of the nomadic alliance.
The political structure of nomadic alliances was loose and there was an urgent need for state feudalization.
The Northern Song Dynasty was very advanced in terms of political structure for Western Xia, and the Northern Liao Dynasty was able to suppress the Northern Song Dynasty because of the appointment of Han officials for political reform.
The combination of fierce nomadic customs and the advanced political structure of the Central Plains has created a special development.
Returning to the evaluation of officials in the Two Song Dynasty, in addition to institutionalizing and standardizing appointments, even evaluation was more procedural. During the Two Song Dynasty, Beijing officials were examined once a year, and Beijing officials were inspected by the Mokan Court and the Court of Judges.
The achievements and morality of Beijing officials are evaluated in an all-round way, and the grades are graded according to the principle that the capable are superior and the mediocre are lowered.
The qualified grade may be promoted or retained for reward, while the unqualified grade will be punished. For local officials, the examination institute presides over the work.
Most of the examinations are also held once a year, and for local officials, they are also graded examinations.
All officials are divided into three levels of examination results, and those who are at the top are promoted at their discretion. Those in the middle do not rise or fall, and those in the lower position either demote or extend the grinding period.
This effectively promoted the efficiency of officials in the Two Song Dynasty, and also allowed officials to no longer rest easy because they were officials. Officials conduct performance appraisals with their ability and conduct, effectively supervising the building of a clean and honest government for officials themselves.
However, the problem of the three redundancies in the Northern Song Dynasty has always been very complicated, and it cannot be avoided by an official evaluation system.
The evaluation system can only urge existing officials to be vigilant about politics, but cannot fundamentally solve the problems of the Northern Song court.
Because the Northern Song Dynasty faced the situation of division of domains and towns during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it was necessary to promote the status of civil officials and expand the ranks of civil officials to maintain centralized power.
However, the excessive suppression of the status of military generals led to the uncontrollable influence of civilian forces.
In this way, civilian power naturally becomes bloated and inefficient. The foundation of the reform of the imperial examination and official evaluation system in the Northern Song Dynasty was to balance the contradictions among civil servants and select new officials to evaluate old officials.
The rise and fall between new and old officials can alleviate the rigidity of the internal system of civil officials as much as possible. And the assessment methods of officials in the two Song Dynasties also became very complicated for this reason.
From the proportion of criminal proceedings and detections, the criminal ability and legal literacy of officials are examined, after all, understanding of national laws is an important basic quality for officials to maintain social order.
Judging officials' understanding of agriculture from the results of persuading farmers and reclaiming wasteland.
Agriculture was the foundation of feudal society, and ancient China was also a social model constructed by the feudal small-scale peasant economy. The local officials' understanding of the local farmland situation and the results of local crop cultivation are all part of the assessment.
In particular, the construction of water conservancy is also very important for the construction of agricultural infrastructure. In some areas, officials are also required to assess the maintenance of armaments, such as border officials, who regularly inspect arsenals.
For the equipment of the region, it is necessary to maintain and refurbish, and for the horse government, it is necessary to ensure that the horses are properly raised. Horse administration was a policy that ran through the feudal dynasty, and in many periods there were special horse officials to manage horses.
The dock forts in the territory must also be overhauled and maintained from time to time, which are the contents of the assessment of border officials. From law to administration, from agriculture to military.
The official evaluation system in the Two Song Dynasty was very complicated, which was also the choice of emphasizing culture over martial arts. Because of the low status of military generals, many things that should have been the responsibility of military generals were transferred to civilian officials.
This requires civil servants to have a strong quality to be responsible for various affairs, but the consequence of this is also obvious, that is, it creates a situation of redundant officials.
The imperial court envisaged that the officials should have extremely strong comprehensive quality, but it was difficult to achieve with the level of education at that time. This results in several people in charge of a position, and delegating responsibilities to each other reduces efficiency.
The problem of the three redundancies in the Northern Song Dynasty could not be fundamentally solved, and no matter how the civil official forces evaluated the results of officials, they could not free the Northern Song court from the dilemma of imbalance between civil and military forces.